1. Naming the Epoch:
Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Ecocene
Dr. Joanna Boehnert
P/T Research Fellow in Design - @ecocene
Center for Research and Education in Arts and Media (CREAM)
University of Westminster
Founder of EcoLabs - @ecolabs
http://ecolabsblog.wordpress.com
+ www.eco-labs.org

3. Anthropocene
Capitalocene
Ecocene

4. Content
A: Anthropocene
• What is occurring?
B: Capitalocene
• Why is this occurring?
C: Ecocene
• What would we like to occur?

5. Anthropocene

6. Anthropocene
The evidence amassed by the scholars working in the Anthropocene
and cognate perspectives is indispensible. Such evidence helps us
outline the problems, and descriptively answer the first key question,
“What is occurring?”
Moore 2015, 25

7. Anthropocene
Photograph by Susannah Sayler of The Canary Project

8. Anthropocene
The Anthropos:
Humanity as an undifferentiated whole

9. It is important to be specific about
exactly what ‘anthropos’ are doing to
destabilise climate systems and other
planetary boundaries.
Anthropocene

10. Anthropocene
Burtynsky’s Oil Fields #19ab, Belridge, California, USA, 2003.
III. Against the Anthropocene
By T.J. DEMOS | Published: 25. MAY 2015
“typical of Burtynsky’s tendency to make
monumental, awe-inspiring photographs from
scenes of environmental violence—violence
defined not only locally in terms of the damage to
regional landscapes, but also globally in relation to
the contribution of industrial fossil fuel production
to destructive climate change...
The problem is that such images tend to naturalize
petrocapitalism, with a photography mesmerized
by the compositional and chromatic elements
of the very infrastructure responsible for our
environmental destruction. Which reminds me of
Walter Benjamin’s oft-quoted insight about fascist
aesthetics:
“Its self-alienation has reached the point
where it can experience its own annihilation as
a supreme aesthetic pleasure.”
Yet another function of Burtynsky’s imagery is to
generalize responsibility for that destruction to
species-being—a key ideological trope of the
Anthropocene.

11. Anthropocene
“In this framework, humans constitute a set of vectors – propelling
the ‘Great Acceleration’ – which threatens planetary crisis. Humans
are placed in one category, Nature in another, and the feedbacks
between them identified.
And this dualist fame constrains our vision of the possible contours
and deepening contradictions of the century ahead. For key to
understanding the unfolding systemic crisis of the twenty-first centry
is a historical method – which implies a new radical praxis – in which
humans and extra-human natures co-produce historical change.”
Moore 2015, 25

12. Anthropocene
“To portray certain social relations as the natural properties of the
species is nothing new. Dehistoricizing, universalizing, eternalizing,
and naturalizing a mode of production specific to a certain time and
place — these are the classic strategies of ideological legitimation...
Without antagonism, there can never be any change in human
societies. Species-thinking on climate change only induces paralysis.
If everyone is to blame, then no one is.”
Malm 2015

13. The Anthropocene must be
“as short/thin as possible”
Haraway 2015, 60

14. This poster explores the social impact of the
current model of development. Humans and the
natural world provide essential ‘resources’ for
the purpose of creating products, profits and
economic growth. Yet economic growth does not
necessarily equal greater well-being. Research
has demonstrated that only 1% of growth
contributes to rising standards of living.
Prosperity is increasingly concentrated and over
the past 30 years inequality has risen in over
75% of the countries Global North (OECD
countries). Although there is more than enough
food to meet everyone’s needs, 13% of the
global population face hunger. Meanwhile,
30-50% of the food supply is simply wasted. It
appears that the current model of development
fails to provide prosperity for the majority.
3/4 countries in the Global North
face greater inequality than in 1980.1% of global food supply would eliminate hunger - yet 30-50% of global food supply is simply wasted.
Economic Growth
THE BALANCE SHEET FOR
GROSS GLOBAL PROSPERITY
JZ1122
Cheap energy made industrial development
possible. One barrel of crude oil contains, in
energy terms, the equivalent to the heavy
manual labour of 12 people working for one year.
As easily accessible fossil fuel supplies diminish,
the era of cheap energy is ending. One way to
understand the consequences of energy scarcity
is by measuring EROI, i.e. ‘Energy Return On
Investment’. In the 1900s EROI was between
100:1 – 50:1. Energy from renewables and
unconventional fossil fuels have much lower
EROIs; for example the Tar Sands have a EROI of
as little as only 3:1. An integrated audit of
development that includes energy issues
indicates that the current model of development
has created dangerous vulnerabilities in its
reliance on fossil fuel.
159Lt
One barrel of crude oil, containing 159
litres, is equivalent to the heavy manual
labour of 12 people for one year.
VS4 million wind turbines could
replace fossil fuels usage globally -
20 million cars are produced every
year so it is technically possible.
Global fossil fuels subsidies amounted to $523
billion in 2011, up almost 30% on 2010 - this is
six times more than subsidies to renewables,
and up 30% from 2010.
THE BALANCE SHEET FOR
GROSS GLOBAL PROSPERITY
Energy Return on Energy Investment
EROI in the 1900s = 100:1 – 50:1
EROI in the tarsands = 5:1 – 3:1
EROI estimated to be necessary for ‘civilisation’
to sustain itself = 5:1
All expansionary phases of the US economy occurred
during times of low energy prices.
*
Energy use (kg of oil equivalent per capita)
World = 1851
USA = 7069
EU = 3412
Low Income countries = 363
Percentage of total energy consumption
that is based on fossil fuels
World = 80%
USA = 83%
EU = 75%
Low income countries = 29%
JZ1122
The Earth’s ability to provide an accommodating
environment is undermined by our activities.
The Earth is our life-supporting system. Despite
this basic fact, measured in biophysical terms,
the planet is shrinking due to human
interventions. Over the past forty years the Living
Planet Index (an indicator of the state of
biodiversity) has fallen by 30% in northern
countries and fallen by 60% in the tropics. During
this time there has been a doubling of demands
on natural systems. Assessing the capacity of the
ecological system to continue to provide
favorable conditions for civilization must be part
of an audit of development.
Ecological systems have thresholds that can
lead to sudden collapse. Nine planetary
boundaries are central to avoid crossing critical
tipping points. Three boundaries have already
been transgressed: climate change, the rate of
biodiversity loss and the global nitrogen cycle.
The Anthropocene is a new geological age
2/3 ecosystems are exploited
beyond their capacity
BIODIVERSITY LOSS
NITROGEN FLOW
PHOSPHORUS FLOW
CLIMATE CHANGE
OZONE DEPLETION
ATMOSPHERIC AEROSOL LOAD
OCEAN ACIDITY
FRESHWATER CONSUMPTION
CHEMICAL POLLUTION
AGRICULTURAL LAND USE
PLANETARY BOUNDARIES
Biodiversity has been fallen by a rate of 30%
in northern countries and 60% in the tropical
world over the past 40 years.
97-98% of scientists agree climate
change is caused by humankind
THE BALANCE SHEET FOR
GROSS GLOBAL PROSPERITY
characterized by dynamics where our industrial
patterns are a force dramatically effecting
natural, biophysical and geological processes.
The Earth is the foundation for substance, but
an ecological audit indicates that the model of
development is now so dysfunctional that
human survival is at stake.
JZ1122
Audit of Development. EcoLabs 2012. Content and art directed by: Dr. Joanna Boehnert. Graphic design by: Lazaros Kakoulidis and Tzortzis Ralli.
Capitalocene
Audit of Development. EcoLabs 2012. Content and art directed by: Dr. Joanna Boehnert
Graphic design by: Lazaros Kakoulidis and Tzortzis Ralli

15. P O L I C Y R E S E A R C H
C E N T E R FOR
SCIENCE&TECHNOLOGY
C
M
Y
CM
MY
CY
CMY
K
MAPPING Climate Communication - Network of Actors - 2015 OUTLINES T PRINT.pdf 1 22/01/2015 11:55
Capitalocene
Mapping Climate Communication No.2: Network of Actors. J.Boehnert, 2014

16. www.eco-labs.org
Capitalocene
‘Design Activism’ in Creative Review. 8 October 2008 + an image from my paper ‘Hopenhagen: Design Activism as an Oxymoron’ for the Design History Society

17. Capitalocene
‘The Green Economy: Reconceptualizing the Natural Commons as Natural Capital’.
Environmental Communication. Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group.

18. Capitalocene
Econopoly by EcoLabs 2011

19. Capitalocene
The capitalocene concept is vigorously contested.

20. Capitalocene

21. Capitalocene

22. “there is no advantage to us to bring the
Anthropocene into the future…
..the mythos of the Anthropocene does not
help us…
...we must re-imagine our world and enable
the Ecocene”
Rachel Armstrong 2015

23. Ecocene
Options
• Chthulucene (Donna Haraway) “it does outline the
necessary ethics of what Haraway terms ‘response-
ability,’ the skilled capacities for survival on a damaged
planet that include the practice of justice and
sustainable belonging.”
T.J. Demos 2016
• Gynocene: (Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle)
“gender-equalized, even feminist-led, interventionist
environmentalism, which locates anthropogenic
geological violence as coextensive with patriarchal
domination, linking ecocide and gynocide.”
T.J. Demos 2016

24. Ecocene
Ecocene
• well versed with the critical perspective of the capitalocene
• like chthulucene but easier to say
• like chthulucene but easier to remember
• like chthulucene but less frightening
• like gynocene but with a focus on all types of oppressions
• an ontology, epistemology and ethic emerging from
ecological thought, i.e. ecological literacy

25. Ecocene
THE STEADY STATE ECONOMY
A Totem of Real Happiness
www.eco-labs.org
The Steady State Economy
EcoLabs 2009. Graphic design by Angela Morelli
Based on a paper by Herman Daly, illustrating an
article in EcoMag No.1 (2009), London: EcoLabs.

26. Ecocene
“We are not fighting for nature we are nature
defending itself” The Climate Games. Cop21 Paris

27. References
Armstrong, Rachel (2015) ‘Keynote Presentation’, Urban Ecologies
2015: A conference examining the future design of our cities, 18-19
June 2015, Toronto, Ontario, Canada: OCAD, Ontario College of Art.
Demos, T.J. (2015) ‘III Against the Anthropocene’, Foto_Museum.
25 May 2015. Accessed 22 May 2016: http://blog.fotomuseum.
ch/2015/05/iii-against-the-anthropocene
Demos, T.J. (2015) ‘V. Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Gynocene: The
Many Names of Resistance’, Foto_Museum. 12 June 2015. Accessed
22 May 2016: http://blog.fotomuseum.ch/2015/06/ v-anthropocene-
capitalocene-gynocene-the-many-names-of-resistance
Haraway, Donna (2015) Anthropocne, capitalocene, plantationocene,
chthulucene: Making Kin. Environmental Humanities, 6, pp.159-165.
Malm, Andreas (2015) ‘The Anthropocene Myth: Blaming all of human-
ity for climate change lets capitalism off the hook’, Jacobin. 3 March
2015. Accessed 22 May 2016: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/03/
anthropocene-capitalism-climate-change/
Moore, Jason (2015) Capitalism in the Web of Life: Ecology and the
Accumulation of Capital. London: Verso.

28. Dr. Joanna Boehnert https://ecolabsblog.wordpress.com | www.eco-labs.org | @EcoLabs + @ecocene | j.boehnert@westminster.ac.uk
2014201320122011201020092008200720062005
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
1st Nongovernmental International
Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC)
report published yearly since 2010. 2st NIPCC
report
3rd NIPCC
report
4th NIPCC
report
5th NIPCC
report
Rising Tide North America
+ Europe founded (2006)
1st of many Climate Camps in the UK and then globally (2006)
US House Passes
the "American Clean
Energy and Security
Act" (2009) - later
defeated in Senate
350.org Global
Day of Action
2009
100,000 people march in the streets
of Copenhagen and hold their own
People’s Climate Assembly, joined by
100s of U.N. delegates.
Tar Sands Action: 1,253 protestors
arrested at the White House - 2011
Occupy movement - 2011
Idle No More
Indigenous movement
2012
CREDO Pledge of Resistance
over 75,000 vow to commit civil
disobedience if the Keystone XL
pipeline is approved - 2013
The Global Warming Petition
contrarian petition also known
as the Oregon Petition organized
in 1989 and again in 2007
EU Emissions trading launches
The first carbon emissions trading
scheme (EU) implemented. 2005
President Obama releases
the Climate Action Plan
including increased use of
renewable energy and carbon
pollution restrictions for power
plants. June 25, 2013
!!!
!!!
!!!
!!!
protests at
G8 Gleneagles
Scotland 2005 !!!
Transition Towns
founded, UK 2006
5th,2013/14(AR5)4th,2007(AR4)
Hopenhagen
UN global marketing campaign at Copenhagen,
aligns climate objectives with corporate advertising.
Hopenhagend becomes a symbol of the corporate
capture of the climate debate.
COP15
Copenhagen
2009
RIO+20
Earth
Summit
2012
COP13
Bali
2007
Nobel Peace Prize awarded
to Al Gore and the IPCC
2007
The Inconvenient Truth
Academy Award winning documentary film
re-energizes the climate movement - 2006
Newsweek: "The Truth About
Denial" cover story, leads to less
contrarian media outside Fox News
churnalism
OP10
nos Aires
2004
COP11
Montreal
2005 COP12
Nairobi
2006 COP14
Poznan
2008
COP16
Cancun
2010
COP17
Durban
2011
COP18
Doha
2012
COP19
Warsaw
2013
COP20
Lima
2014
loss of 2/3 US newspapers with science sections in 2 decades
Stern
Review
The Stern Review on the
Economics of Climate Change
claims that climate change is
"the greatest market failure the
world has ever seen". UK - 2006
Climategate
Gleneagles
G8
Peak coverage in 2009
5 times larger than 2000
The rise of ‘responsibilitization’ discourse wherein responsibility for climate change
is considered at an individual level rather than at the level where decisions are
made regarding regulation for polluting industry, i.e. government policy.
Katrina
2nd peak
4th peak
CO2 is Green
campaign
Leipzig
Declaration (revised)
SEPP project opposing the global warming
2005 revised
300% increase in climate change lobbyist in the USA (2005 - 2009) - with $90m expenditure
dustry workforce since 2001 ‘bias’ as ‘balance’, i.e. the false balance of science vs. opinion / ideology,
conforming to the journalistic norm of ‘balance’ and conflict. Boykoff 2011
Representative
Joe Barton attacks
climate scientist
Michael Mann
Post Rio+20: The United Nations Environment Programe (UNEP) promotes a version
of the "green economy" where economic valuation processes are to be used to prove the
value of ecosystem services, including climate services, to industry and politicians.
The Copenhagen Accord
Obama
Climate
Plan
UK government
dismantles the
Sustainable
Development
Commission
2011
Canadian
government
cuts over 2000
scientific jobs
and silences
scientists
UK government
makes dramatic cuts
in the Environment
Agency (1,700 jobs
lost)
1st International Conference
on Climate Change hosted
by Heartland Institute in NYC
H1 H2
H3 H5
H7
H4
H6
H8
H9
Sandy
3rd peak
5th peak
Climate Justice Now!
founded in Bali (2007)
4th peak
eclaration on the
on of Climate Change
ched at COP10 (2004)
Nicholas Stern claims
his report underestimated
the gravity of climate change
Fourth IPCC report warns that serious effects
of warming have become evident and that
the cost of reducing emissions would be far
less than the damage they will cause if not
reduced.
Climate Summit
in New York in preperation
for COP 21 in Paris, 2015.
September 2014
The Climate Change Act
UK government becomes the
first to set binding targets
to reduce emission
2008
UK Feed-in tarriffs for
solar installations
approved - 2008
Clean Development Mechanism opens
A key mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol
2006
2008 - CNN cuts entire science and technology budget in 2008
Alaska Gov. Sarah
Palin campaigns
for US presidency
with the slogan “
Drill, baby, drill’
2008
2010 highest ever yearly
increase in global emissions - 5.9%
Canadian
government
withdraws
from Kyoto
This Changes Everything:
Capitalism vs. The Climate
by Naomi Klein 2014
l Warming’
April 2014 is the first
month in human history with
average carbon dioxide
level in Earth’s atmosphere
at 400 ppm
of Fear
richton. A novel
at global warming
ated by environmentalists
ary control is popular with
s in Washington and widely
ss climate change.
Climate Change:
A Summary of the Science
The Royal Society (UK)
USA Today proclaim:
“The debate is over: the globe is warming”
Heartland Institute billboard campaign (2012)
excerpts from e-mails stolen from
climate scientists fuel public skepticism
Copenhagen conference fails
to negotiate binding agreements.
US National Academy warns of
political assaults on scientists
2010
US Republican
majority eliminates
the House Committee
on Global Warming
2011
International Energy Agency
report warns of 6º warming
2011
s‘ paper in
e scientific
climate change
US house of Representatives votes 184-240 against accepting the following resolution:
“the scientific finding of the Environmental Protection Agency that climate change is occuring,
is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks to public heath and welfare”
April 2011
!!!
Vanity Fair:
The Green Issue
The Great Global
Warming Swindle
Channel 4 (UK) documentary
formally criticized by Ofcom,
UK broadcasting regulatory
agency. 2007
No Climate Tax
campaign
Climate Change:
Trick or Treat? (CNN)
mass mobilization of the
climate justice movement
Manhattan Declaration on Climate
Change by the International Climate
Science Coalition
World People's Conference on Climate
Change and the Rights of Mother Earth
30,000 gather in Cochabamba, Bolivia - 2010
China overtakes USA
as world's largest CO2
emitter 2007
Syndey
Washington
Chicago Munich
Las Vegas
Washington
NewYork Chicago
International Treaty to Protect
the Sacred. Indigenous action
on tar sands extraction - 2013
'Largest-ever'
climate-change
march in NYC
attended by an
estimated 300k to
400k people - and
marchs in cities
around the world
mobilization of the
climate movement
!!!
!!!
!!!
!!!
!!!
!!!
Kyoto treaty goes into effect, signed by all major
industrial nations except US and Australia - 2005
“Carbon dioxide. They call it pollution. We call it life.”
disinformation campaign created by The Competitive Enterprise Institute
The Merchants of Doubt
by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway
documents the climate contrarian movement
2010
Bolivia’s chief climate negotiator
Angelica Navarro delivers speech
on climate debt at the UN
To Really Save the Planet, Stop Going Green
by Mike Tidwell rejecting green consumerism